Chapter Text
So. Ichigo might not have handled that whole “run into a bunch of shinigami in a random district of Rukongai” affair very well, but Shiba is a lieutenant and Ichigo is, after all, just a student, so despite his rather… awkward departure, he honestly doesn’t expect to ever see him again.
Which is why he’s not sure how to feel about immediately bumping into him the very next weekend.
He’s been in Rukongai for approximately 45 seconds and cut down exactly two hollows when he turns to take care of the rest and finds them already crumbling away, Shiba sheathing his sword behind them.
And, okay, first of all — Ichigo has got to work on sensing reiatsu if this is what not caring about it gets him. Had he been able to tell people were approaching he could have avoided the whole spectacle that happened last week, and therefore also not have, apparently, caught the attention of a lieutenant. Who came all the way back out here again to… do what, actually?
That leads to point 2. “What do you want?”
Shiba doesn’t look sheepish or uncomfortable, which is hopefully a good sign.
“Well. I realise this might seem a little weird, but—”
Ichigo snorts. “A little, yeah.” When Shiba tries a half-hearted glare he raises his eyebrows right back. "You're the stranger seeking someone out in the middle of nowhere, completely alone. I’d say that might seem a little weird.”
Shiba actually pouts at him. “Weren’t you more polite last time?” he complains, because they both know he’s right, even though Ichigo is almost certain that he doesn’t have bad intentions.
“You don’t have any minions with you who are trying to glare me into an early grave today,” he says dryly, and Shiba breaks his fake-offended façade to laugh.
“What, really?”
“I thought one of them was gonna straight out stab me when I called Ukitake "Ukitake". That look...”
Shiba hums. “That is actually an interesting point, since you brought it up — why did you? Or apparently, why do you?” he wonders, and Ichigo blinks in confusion.
“Why do I what?”
“Not use Ukitake-taichou's rank. That’s really unusual, you know.”
Luckily for Ichigo, Shiba just looks curious and not offended on behalf of his captain, because he easily could have been and Ichigo didn’t consider that at all, and it could have been the cause of so much drama. He wants to shudder just thinking about it.
“It’s not that I don’t respect him or anything,” he says, because that’s important and also true. Ukitake is one of his favourite non-visored captains. Not that it counts for much, actually, considering that the visored currently make up almost half of the Gotei 13, and three of the remaining ones are traitors. Oh, and Urahara and Yoruichi count as captains right now as well, meaning they also have to be on the top of the list. Which actually just leaves Ukitake, Kyouraku, Yamamoto and Unohana, thinking about it, but none of this actually matters right now so Ichigo pushes it aside and heaves an enormous sigh. “It’s a hassle. I can’t be bothered.”
(And that is true, even though it is mainly because of the way he became a shinigami and how he was introduced to the Gotei 13. Most of them were trying to kill him when they met, after all. Plus he was never taught to do so, and therefore never picked up the habit of doing it. But he can’t say any of that, so the second biggest reason will have to do.)
Shiba stares at him for a few moments before bursting into laughter, and Ichigo assumes that’s a good sign. Even more so when he comes closer to give him a few solid pats on the back, still chuckling.
“I knew you seemed fun,” is what he says, and Ichigo shrugs. If Shiba thinks this is being fun he’s not going to argue; it’s better than how most people react to him.
He will, however, object to the way Shiba suddenly slings an arm around his shoulders and pulls him close. “What?” he yelps.
Okay, not a very eloquent objection, but it’ll have to do.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come back and meet the captain? Or even better, come back and hang out with me?”
That’s definitely not what Ichigo expected. “Do you really want me to come to the 13th division that badly?” Ichigo asks, honestly a little surprised at the idea.
“What?” Shiba looks confused for a moment. “Oh, no, it’s not like that. It has nothing to do with the 13th division, not really. It’s more like, well….” He pauses for a moment. “Okay, look. I know you said your name was Kurosaki and I’m not doubting that or anything, but you do look astonishingly like a Shiba, weird hair colour aside—”
“Hey!”
“—enough so that I can’t help but think you might have at least some Shiba blood in there somewhere. Because the resemblance is pretty much undeniable, and us possibly being related is not something that I want to ignore. But also because you do seem like a really interesting person and I honestly would like to get to know you better.”
And Ichigo has no idea how to reply to that. I can’t possibly be a Shiba is the first thing he wants to say, because he’s a human and therefore it’s impossible, but then he remembers his father and pauses. What the fuck would he know? He’d thought Isshin was a normal human until his father had burst onto the scene during his fight with Aizen with a shihakusho, a haori, a zanpakuto, and detailed information about the Dangai, and Ichigo is none the wiser about what that actually means even now, over a year later.
It’s a weird feeling to realise he doesn’t know anything about his father, or his father’s side of the family. He’s never thought about it before. And he knows equally little about his mother or her family. Does he have any relatives? Are any of them alive? Are they human? Is he even human?
Oh god. Ichigo was not prepared to have an existential crisis today. Thankfully Shiba seems to pick up on the tension because he doesn’t push, doesn’t say anything, just gives him time to sort himself out and stuff all of it back into the “don’t know and might never find out so no point in worrying about it” box in his mind that he keeps specifically for things like this.
(His family is seriously awful at communication — if Ichigo ever gets back to his own time, he is almost tempted to try and do something about it. But he knows he won’t, because he's just as bad as his father.)
He takes a deep breath and gives himself a mental shake.
“I don’t actually know anything about my family on either side,” he says, mostly just to have acknowledged it out loud. “So there might be several Shiba-relatives somewhere in there for all I know. But—” he says quickly, when Shiba opens his mouth, “—I’m still gonna say no thanks. I can even try to do it politely this time, if you want to.”
It’s almost flattering how disappointed Shiba looks at that. “Why not?”
Ichigo shrugs. “I don’t want any attention. You being a lieutenant would generate a lot of it. It's nothing personal.”
“That’s—” Shiba looks surprised. “You don’t know?”
Well, that doesn’t sound ominous at all. “Know what?”
Shiba looks a little sheepish. “There’s rumours all over Seireitei about the first year academy student who looks like me. So while you’re not exactly well-known, plenty of people might see you on the street and connect the dots.”
“What?”
“I honestly didn’t realise it myself when we met, but some of the others caught on right away and the whole division has probably heard about you by now. Nothing bad of course,” he hurries to add, as if that is at all the problem. “Just about how we bumped into each other and how much you resemble me, I think. But yeah, most of them would definitely recognise you.”
Ichigo knows he’s gaping, but he’s not sure what else to do. All of his plans to be quiet and ordinary and unassuming in order to fly under the radar are ruined almost before they began just because he looks like Shiba?
What kind of bullshit is this?
“Why?” he finally manages to ask, and Shiba blinks at him.
“Why they would recognise you? Well, we do look very similar and your hair colour is pretty distinctive—”
“No, not—” Ichigo takes a deep breath and tries to gather his scattered thoughts. “Why are there rumours about me?”
“Oh, that.” Shiba shrugs. “Shinigami are just horrible gossips in general and you were unlucky enough to resemble a lieutenant, I guess.” Then he smiles, somehow looking both kind and teasing at the same time. “But hey, now you don’t really have a reason to turn me down anymore. Wanna go get dinner together later?”
And the whole situation is so bizarre that Ichigo simply gives up. Fuck this shit, he's not dealing with it. "You know what? Sure. Why not. Why the hell not. But I still gotta finish the trip out to my district and back, so are you coming along or do you want to meet somewhere later?”
Shiba looks surprised for a moment before grinning. “Oh, I’m definitely coming along.”
And he does.
Ichigo takes him through a slightly shortened version of the round he normally does — he’s here every single weekend, he can afford to be a little less thorough today — and then lets Shiba lead the way when they’re back within city borders because Ichigo knows exactly two places to get dinner and one of them is the school cafeteria.
But Shiba gets them seats in some tiny hole-in-the-wall shop Ichigo never would have spotted on his own, far away from the main streets and nobody bats an eye at a lieutenant showing up, and where the food is amazing, and Ichigo....
It’s almost annoying to admit, but Ichigo honestly has a really good time.
Kaien — laughingly offered after Ichigo fumbled his "Shiba-fukutaichou" one too many times, now that they're back around other people who actually care about ranks and politeness — is fun. He is friendly without being too much, doesn't seem to mind that he has to keep up the conversation on his own a lot of the time, and is just a genuinely good guy. Hanging out with him is easy and comfortable in a way Ichigo didn't anticipate.
(Ichigo somehow hadn’t expected to feel lonely, ending up a hundred years in the past and planning to kill someone who’s already defeated and imprisoned in his own time. With his family at home and friends at school, as well as the many, many people who’d been in and out of his life (and room) during the course of that one very busy year, he hasn’t felt properly alone in a long time, not even after giving up his powers and losing contact with everyone related to the shinigami. Living in the cabin out in Rukongai by himself had changed that, and the academy isn’t much better. Having a proper conversation with someone is shockingly nice.)
After the meal is over they go their separate ways, and because Kaien is still a lieutenant and Ichigo is still a nobody academy student (apparently with rumours about him, though, and isn’t that a fun thought), Ichigo fully expects to never hear from him again, despite Kaien’s little speech from before and how enjoyable the dinner had turned out to be.
And maybe he should’ve known better, having made the exact same mistake just last week, but that doesn’t mean he's prepared for the package that arrives at his room a few days later, crammed with about half a dozen chocolate bars and a note reading: You’re too skinny, you need to eat more! –Kaien.
This time, Ichigo knows exactly how he feels about it, and it’s 100% surprised. What is going on?
A couple of weeks later, swamped in lunch and dinner invitations and still more packages of chocolate and sweets and dried fruits, Ichigo is forced to accept that what's going on seems to be Kaien doing his very best to feed him.
Which is weird all on its own, but shouldn’t Kaien also have better things to do? He’s a lieutenant, goddammit!
As it turns out, the answer is “no”.
Both his captain (which is Ukitake, and therefore doesn’t surprise Ichigo) and the 3rd seat (which apparently is his wife, and does surprise Ichigo) do their jobs really well, which means Kaien’s workload is pretty manageable and leaves him with more than enough time to pester unsuspecting students who just wants to be left alone (read: Ichigo) without it affecting his work. So he does.
And that’s how Ichigo gets reluctantly, but not really against his will, pulled into a new routine of eating dinner together every now and then, and packages still being sent to his room with things Kaien thinks he needs.
(“Will you stop sending me chocolate, Kaien, I’m not five years old!”
“Hey, chocolate is enjoyable no matter your age, and you’re still too thin, you need to eat more! If you’d take better care of yourself, I wouldn’t have to!”)
Then suddenly, somehow, they’re having dinner together at least once a week, with the occasional lunch thrown in whenever Kaien can find the time, and one waiter makes the — in Ichigo’s opinion — rather unfortunate mistake of asking Kaien if “his younger brother” is ready to order while Ichigo is reading the menu and not paying attention. Kaien’s gleeful expression had told Ichigo that on a scale of “how much is he going to hate this”, he’d land firmly in the “if he manages to find a way to Hueco Mundo, maybe Grimmjow will eat him if he asks nicely” category.
(He doesn’t manage to find a way to Hueco Mundo.)
Instead, he finds out exactly how fond Kaien is of introducing Ichigo as “not my younger brother, despite the resemblance, but my younger cousin!”, regardless of how most people don’t ask, don’t care, and don’t assume they are related. And also regardless of the fact that Ichigo isn’t his younger cousin, but that little detail is apparently of no importance.
(Maybe if Ichigo just goes to Rukongai and blasts his reiatsu at full power, Grimmjow will magically come find him instead.)
As the weeks pass though, Ichigo will admit — never out loud, and definitely never to Kaien — that it’s nice, to kinda have a family again, even if it only consists of one unnecessarily loud and meddlesome guy who can’t take no for an answer and absolutely refuses to leave him alone.
It feels … good, to not be alone anymore. Maybe having an older cousin isn’t so bad, after all.
He is still absolutely never telling that to Kaien, though, or Ichigo will not be left alone for a single second for the rest of his (then) miserable life. Best not to risk it.
But it is nice. If only Kaien would—
(“Goddammit, will you stop it with the chocolate already!”)